what is a hunger banquet? 3 setting up 4 preparations 5 hunger banquet Schedule 6 Pre-Banquet Discussion 6 Seating & Meal 9 Facilitated Discussion 11 Response 13 appendix A: Admission Tickets 15 appendix B: Room Signage 16 appendix C: Handouts 20 appendix D: Banquet Team Training 22 appendix E: How to Make Dirty Water 23 appendix F: Character Back Stories 24 appendix G: Serving at the FH Sponsorship Table 27 appendix H: Opportunities with Food for the Hungry 30 Hunger Banquet. © 2011 Food for the Hungry. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Food for the Hungry, except as provided by USA copyright law. Possession of this document grants you permission to print, photocopy and implement these materials for your group in their original form. Do not modify the material or teach any of the lessons or activities outside the context presented in this document without written consent from Food for the Hungry. You may request permission for such use by contacting the Global Engagement department of Food for the Hungry at [email protected]. 1224 E Washington St, Phoenix, AZ 85034. (800) 248-6437. www.fh.org. The Hunger Banquet® is a registered service mark of Oxfam-America, Inc. (http://www.oxfamamerica.org) and is used herein by permission of the service mark owner. ©2002 Oxfam-America. Inc. All Rights Reserved. Portions of this work were originally published by Oxfam-America, Inc. (http://www.oxfamamerica.org), an international relief and development organization that cre- ates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger and injustice. what is a hunger banquet? A Hunger Banquet encourages a deeper understanding of world food distribution and poverty The Hunger Banquet provides answers to questions such as: • Who are the world’s hungry? • Why are people hungry? • Is Christian action important? • What does the Bible say about the poor and the hungry? This interactive teaching demonstration creates awareness of poverty and food distribution. A meal is provided during which everyone eats in proportion to the way food is distributed throughout the world By experiencing world conditions, participants gain a better understanding of the disparity of food and wealth distribution. When coupled with biblical teaching, participants also learn God’s heart for the poor and the responsibility of Christians to the poor By hosting a Hunger Banquet, you’re not just bringing awareness to the issue of global hunger—you’re providing a realistic action step and a challenge to solve the problem! Don’t miss the opportunity to provide this action step. Be sure to order child sponsorship packets and set up a response table (see “Preparations”) If you have any more questions, please get in touch with FH staff by email at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you! 3 setting up Materials Needed Hold your Hunger Banquet in a facility that allows plenty of room to serve a meal to three separate groups (all in the same room) and then hold a discussion afterward. Facility o Table and chairs for the rich (10% of the group) o Table and chairs for middle class (20% of the group) o Floor space for the poor (70% of the group) o Table for Food for the Hungry materials Food o Rich: Full course meal with beverages and dessert. o Middle Class: Large pot of rice and beans or loaves of bread and a jar of jam. Tap water to drink. o Poor: Small pot of rice or some slices of bread. Dirty water to drink. (See Appendix E, “How to Make Dirty Water.”) Place Settings and Decorations o Rich: Set the table with nice dishes, glasses and cutlery on a fine tablecloth with a centerpiece o Middle Class: Set the table with disposable cups, plastic spoons and paper plates or bowls Provide serving spoons so that the middle class can serve themselves. Do not provide a tablecloth or decorations Provide chairs o Poor: Provide a stack of disposable cups and bowls, but no utensils. Guests will sit on the floor. For decoration, represent a trash dump by scattering crumpled newspaper, empty cans and assorted plastic grocery bags across the floor. Response Table o Child sponsorship packets, or another response device for post-banquet follow up o Brochures from Food for the Hungry, or other information on ways to respond to world hunger Printouts and Writing Utensils o Printed items from Appendices A, B, C, and F o Writing utensils for participants 4 preparations To prepare for your Hunger Banquet, assign each of the following tasks to a member of your team. Before the Day of the Event o Publicize your event by using multiple methods to tell others about your banquet. Some ideas include: making announcements at church, creating a Facebook event, and inviting friends personally via phone or email. o Print the tickets found in Appendix A. Ensure that you have enough tickets for every guest. The symbols on these tickets will direct each guest to the rich, middle class, or poor section of the room. o Print the symbols found in Appendix B. These large symbols will be displayed in the three parts of the room to direct guests towards their assigned sections. o Prepare for the facilitated discussion o Print handouts from Appendix C for each attendee. o Order the food. (See “Food” on page 4.) o Reserve the facility (see “Facility” on page 4) and acquire decorations and place settings (see “Place Settings” on page 4) o Train your banquet team. See Appendix D for team training materials. For a successful banquet, most groups find that they need at least three team members per 20-30 guests. o At least 2 weeks before your event: Order child sponsorship packets and brochures from Food for the Hungry. To order, call (800) 248-6437 and ask for the Global Engagement department. Our staff will help you decide how many packets and brochures you need, depending on the number of guests you expect. On the Day of the Event o Prepare the food and water o Set the place servings for the rich and the middle class. Designate floor space for the poor. Display the printed signs from Appendix B in the appropriate sections of the room. o Use the tickets printed from Appendix A to divide participants as follows: 1 in 10 as rich, 2 in 10 as middle class, and the rest as poor. o Usher the rich to sit at the well decorated table, have the middle class sit at the table with plastic cutlery, and send the poor to the floor. 5 hunger banquet Schedule Pre-Banquet Discussion (Optional) 15 minutes Seating and Meal 30 minutes Facilitated Discussion 15-45 minutes Response Time 15 minutes In the following materials, words for the facilitator to say are in regular type. Of course, we recommend rephrasing the materials in your own words whenever possible. Directions for the facilitator are in italics. pre-banquet discussion If you have access to a room other than the banquet hall, we recommend gathering your guests in a separate room for this discussion. If the banquet hall is your only available room, you may incorporate this material into your facilitated discussion after the meal. Pass out the handouts and writing utensils. The quiz questions below correspond to the guests’ handouts. Welcome to the Hunger Banquet! Tonight we are going to share a meal and as we do, we’ll learn about world hunger together First, let’s see how much we know collectively about world hunger. Ask these questions in whatever way is most appropriate for your audience. Some facilitators ask for a show of hands for each question. Other facilitators, feeling that they don’t want to put their guests on the spot, ask their guests to write down their answers or just think about each answer in their minds. 1. True or false? Hunger is caused by overpopulation. False. The world today produces enough grain alone to provide every human being on the planet with 3500 calories a day — enough to make most of us fat! The real problems are unexpected ones: politics, economics, transportation, access, distribution, food security, war, drought, spoilage, contamination, and, above all, poverty. Through your partnership with Food for the Hungry, we can alleviate poverty and reduce the number of people who go to bed hungry. 6 2. True or false? When people are malnourished, their deepest need is their physical need for food. False. Often, we have found that the most immediate need is not a person’s deepest need. The deepest need is often spiritual. That’s why Food for the Hungry ministers to both the physical and spiritual hunger in those we are called to serve. We are called to nurture the whole person — heart and soul, mind and body — for both this life and the kingdom to come. In nurturing the whole person, we most effectively bear witness of the Good News of Jesus Christ. 3. True or false? Hunger affects the young and old, men and women, boys and girls equally. False. Not all of those affected by hunger suffer equally. The vast majority of the 24,000 people who die every day because of hunger or diseases related to hunger are boys and girls under age five, the elderly, and women. Women will often give the food to the men and children first, feeding themselves only after everyone else in their family has eaten. But Food for the Hungry has shown that these deaths are needless.